How maps shaped American expansion, identity, and power. The hosts examine how cartography was a tool of empire — mapping territory was the first step in claiming it, and the map-makers determined whose land counted and whose didn't.
Highlights
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Maps are arguments disguised as facts
Every map makes choices about what to include and exclude, what to center, and what to name. These choices are political acts disguised as neutral geography.
Manifest Destiny was literally drawn on maps before it was achieved on the ground
American maps in the early 1800s showed the nation extending to the Pacific before any American had reached it. The map created the expectation; the expectation drove the expansion.